Foresworn

by Rinda Elliott

  Kara rolled her eyes and walked to the fire. “In my home, people their age usually had kids already.” She sighed. “I miss my home.” She picked up one of the open food packs and sniffed it, grimacing. “I miss the food.”

  “Like you’ve ever had to eat one of those.” Tyrone shook his head, then looked at Arun. “We brought gas for her Jeep. Why didn’t you wait for some of us last night to go after Branton with you? And what’s up with that, anyway? Why did he take off with the backpacks?”

  Arun looked at his mother. “Branton has a god soul, too. He’s been hiding it.”

  “Or a giant’s,” I added. “We’re not too sure how this works.” I thought of Sky, who carried Skadi—one who was technically a giantess, but was written as a goddess at times.

  “Surt?” Alva’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Branton has Surt?”

  Kara pulled off her yellow beanie and shook out her hair. Clumps of snow hissed as they hit the woodstove. “Are you sure? Branton?”

  Arun nodded. “He’s been setting the fires. And he’s known the whole time. He never even told me his middle name, which is Sutter. There’s no telling where the backpacks are now.”

  “Outside,” Tyrone said. “We found the SUV Branton stole on the side of the road. Only a few packs are missing.”

  “I can’t believe this.” Her expression drawn with sadness, Alva walked to the woodstove and held her hands out over it. “I’ve known that boy his whole life. His mother is going to—” She broke off, sucked in a breath. “There was more than one pair of tracks around it, so he met someone out here.”

  “We saw him talking to my mother, so it was probably her.” I pushed my legs off the side of the bunk but kept the sleeping bag wrapped around me.

  Alva spun around. “What are you talking about? Your mother?” She looked at her son.

  “Kat came up here because she thought her mother was coming here to hurt me.”

  I stood, hanging on to the shorts with one hand as I walked to him and touched his arm. “I’ll explain.” I told them about how odd my mother had been acting and about thinking she was in Oklahoma. “But she was somehow there and here on the same day, and last night, my sister Raven called and said she’s traveling with a feathered coat. It must be magic. Oh and—” I broke off, took a deep breath. “It’s not really my mother anymore. I don’t even know if she’s still in there. Arun and I, and even Raven now, think she’s been possessed by Loki.”

  “I gotta sit down.” Alva collapsed onto the bunk. “This is a lot to take in on top of what we already heard this morning. Give me a minute.”

  “What did she hear this morning?” Arun asked Tyrone.

  “Some creatures went through Cody and tore up a lot of buildings. Supposedly giants. There are casualties. Some of the firemen who came out last night said there have been sightings of more in different places and they all seem to be headed here. Brigg and Nanna told us they’d seen some, too.” He frowned, looked at Alva. “Loki being here means we need to step up our game.”

  She nodded, still staring at me. “Your mother must be using Freya’s coat. How could she have gotten her hands on that?”

  “I have no idea. But like I said, it’s not her anymore.” My phone rang, and I jumped toward my pants still draped over the chair, nearly losing the shorts in the process. Worried that I should have pulled it from the wet jeans and maybe not have left it in front of the fire had me fumbling to get it out of the pocket. But the relief and joy that hit me when I saw Coral’s number made me laugh. “It’s my sister,” I told Arun. “The one who was in Florida. I’m glad we have a signal again.”

  I answered, still grinning. “It’s about damned time you called me back.”

  “Sorry,” Coral yelled over a horrible rumbling background noise. “We didn’t have phone reception there for a while and then it was sketchy up in the air.”

  “In the air?”

  “Yeah, Grady, Taran’s dad, has a friend with one of those big, fast military helicopters. Can you believe that?”

  That explained the noise. “Seriously?”

  “I know, right? It’s wild. But listen because I have to keep this short. There are giants and even scarier things headed your way. We got the helicopter because we were trying to find a couple of giants that got away from us in Florida. We found them. Now we’re just about to land in Oklahoma to pick up Raven. Then we’re all going to you.”

  “All?”

  “Me, Taran, his dad, Vanir, Raven and one of Vanir’s brothers because he’s insisting. He has a broken foot, too, so this should be interesting. Oh! And we have another boy carrying a god’s soul and, get this, a Valkyrie! A real live Valkyrie. We found Magnus and Mist fighting the giants we were looking for. Dead giants now.” She paused and the noise got louder, so her yelling did, as well. “I have to go. There’s so much to tell you, Kat! But Taran’s dad says it’ll take us about eleven hours to get to you after we get Raven. We have to stop and refuel and change out pilots. So, we’ll be getting there in the middle of the night. I’ll call right before to get directions.”

  “Okay. But Coral—” The sound cut off. I stared at the phone, then looked around the room. “A bunch of people are coming here. My sisters and they’re with more kids carrying gods’ souls and another Valkyrie.”

  “Who?” Kara asked.

  “Mist, I think she said.”

  Kara nodded and smiled. “It’ll be good to see her.”

  “What else did she say?” Arun asked.

  “Just that they’re in a helicopter, they’ve been fighting giants and they’ll be here in the middle of the night tonight.”

  “We might as well get everyone comfortable here,” Alva said. “Because we’ve already brought in all the snowmobiles. We had to park the trucks and trailers at the gate entrance. Couldn’t get them farther.”

  I looked around the tiny room. “Everyone won’t fit in here. Why don’t we just go back to the greenhouses?”

  When the room went silent and heavy, Arun and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

  “What?” he finally asked.

  Alva took a deep breath. “There are no more greenhouses. The fire spread last night. We were lucky to get the trucks and snowmobiles out of there in time. Folks put us up in town.” She glanced at me, then back at Arun. “Your ex-girlfriend took in Gullin and Freya.”

  Arun slumped on the bunk next to his mom, and she reached for his hand and held it between both of hers—like he’d done with mine the first night after the fire. It was obviously a gesture of warmth and comfort between them. I felt honored that he’d done that for me.

  “We’ll be okay, Arun,” she said softly, leaning her head on his shoulder. “We have insurance and can rebuild.”

  “It just the years of work, of planning...” He trailed off, shuddered. “And all the plants. It was a massacre.”

  “Better the plants than all of us.” She squeezed his hand and ruffled his curls. Which was funny because he was so much taller than her—even sitting. “Arun, you mean more to me than any of those things. It’s just stuff. And you know what? So do all these kids. We haven’t lost anyone. Do you know how much of a miracle that is?”

  She was right. It was. And all I could think to myself was not yet.

  “Kara said we’ve run out of time,” she continued.

  “How do you know?” I asked the Valkyrie.

  Kara shook her head so hard, red curls bobbed about everywhere. Then she glared at me. “How can you not? Listen and tell me what you hear.”

  I cocked my head as everyone went silent. I heard the other kids talking outside and that was it. Until the faint sound of something started to grow louder. “Birds?”

  “Yeah, there are birds. Lots of birds. But even worse? The music stopped.”

  I tried to he
ar the singing voices that had stayed in the background all this time so I’d grown used to them, but I couldn’t hear them at all. “I hadn’t even realized. I mean I heard it yesterday and even last night, but I hadn’t thought about it today.” I’d been too wrapped up in Arun. I looked at him and fought a blush when I saw the way he watched me, the way the corner of his mouth barely turned up.

  “Salvatore is beside himself,” Kara continued. “We can’t get him to calm down because he’s hearing something else and can’t seem to explain what.”

  I listened harder. “It must be the birds. But I think they’re far off still.” All night we’d listened to wolves and now there were enough birds to make noise miles away. A creepy sort of premonition slithered down my spine. A lot of those calls were deep and scratchy—sounding like they came from monsters more at home in a scary movie. Ravens.

  Ravens and wolves—the creatures who would come to the battles to feed upon the dead.

  Kara looked at Alva. “I believe we should wait for the other gods and her sisters to arrive. We can set a bonfire in the clearing to keep everyone warm and to help guide the helicopter here.”

  Arun nodded. “There should be enough room for them to land.”

  “We could set Brigg up to glow them in, too,” I added. “You know, like a human lighthouse.”

  “In the mountains.” Arun chuckled. “Let’s set up camp, go through the supplies and get everything ready.”

  He didn’t have to say for what. We were all quiet as the others filed out, leaving me to dress. But first, I sat on the bunk and wrapped my arms around my knees. A part of me wanted my sisters with me so badly; I wished they were here already. But another part hoped they’d have to set the helicopter down somewhere on the way. Somewhere safe.

  I shivered and pulled the sleeping bag around my shoulders. It smelled faintly of crappy freeze-dried food, smoke from the fire and the much more welcome scent of Arun. I buried my nose in it, wishing I’d had more time alone with him. More time to experience those wonderful kisses of his. My sisters were going to tease me to death over this—over falling for someone I’d just met. Though...it sounded like they’d done the same thing.

  Raven and Coral had to come. I knew the three of us were supposed to be together here—knew that the three of us were necessary.

  Even if one of us didn’t make it.

  * * *

  “The birds are gathering like crazy. Look!” Nanna pointed. I’d been helping her set up tents. She abruptly dropped the backpack she’d been digging in and stalked to the edge of the clearing, her boots kicking up snow. Stopping, she shielded her eyes because the sun had broken through the clouds today.

  In fact, a lot of the clouds seemed to have moved off.

  “You know what our people think of the raven, Kat?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I used to give my sister Raven a hard time about it.”

  “They’re tricksters. So they could be trying to lure us to that spot.” Nanna’s dark eyes were shrewd as she turned to me. “Or that could be where we’re all supposed to go. My grandmother used to say that nothing is just anything, that everything has a reason.”

  I stared at her for a long moment, then snorted out a laugh. “What does that even mean?”

  “It means what you want it to mean.”

  I watched her longer, caught the hint of a smile and cracked up. “You’ve seen too many cheesy old movies. You’re messing with me.”

  “Yep,” she quipped as she spun around and walked toward the snowmobiles. “I have no idea what the crap my grandmother meant most of the time. But all that worthless stuff stuck in my head.” She pulled a white beanie out of her pocket and pulled it onto her head, then looked back at me. “We should check out why those ravens are there. See if their something is anything and has a reason.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” I kept laughing and glanced up at Arun as he stepped beside me. He wore a heavy black parka and a matching knitted hat his mother had brought. Blond curls escaped from under the hat. His sword was holstered on his back.

  He smothered a laugh, tried to turn it into a cough. “Maybe I don’t want to hear an explanation for that mind scramble.”

  I had to think for a moment to clue in to what he talked about. He looked so...hot. I never knew I had a thing for guys with swords. “Nanna has a strange sense of humor.”

  “She’d have to with that name. Can you imagine the teasing she probably dealt with because most of the people I know carrying that moniker have grandkids.”

  Nanna whooped loudly. “Come on! I wanna drive this time!”

  Arun laughed. “I like her. Brigg, too.” He looked around at the gathering of kids. “All of these kids are really decent. Really cool. I hate the thought of what’s coming.” He pointed toward the bonfire. “I’m mostly worrying about Salvatore. I keep thinking we should stash him somewhere until it’s over.”

  The boy under discussion sat next to the fire, eating. He grimaced after each freeze-dried bite, then looked in the bag as if he expected something different to be in there each time. It was hard not to smile at that, hard not to think exactly as Arun did. Because he was right. The sweet Mexican boy wasn’t equipped to fight. “He followed the music and the other kid died protecting him. I think he might be pretty important. And you know what? His name? It’s Italian and it means savior.”

  “My mother said that Hoenir is supposed to survive and become a sort of counselor or spiritual guide to the other surviving gods.”

  We both stared at the boy. I could kind of see that happening because he did have a sense of peacefulness about him.

  “You guys coming or what?” Nanna yelled. “I’m ready for some speed!”

  Brigg climbed onto the back of her snowmobile. Arun and I took another and then Sky joined us, driving alone. Arun rode behind me this time because he wore his sword and holster on his back.

  And, oh, I loved driving that thing!

  It was a little wobbly at first and the others had to slow for me a couple of times, but I quickly got the hang of it.

  We sped around trees and my butt left the seat on a couple of the hills we nearly flew over. Arun held on to me tight—and I loved that part of it, too. For a few moments, I closed my eyes, felt the wind trying to burrow under my clothes, enjoyed the feel of Arun and let myself daydream that we were just a bunch of kids out having fun. Then I opened my eyes, saw the sky turning into a wall of black and that fantasy vaporized. Thousands of the birds swarmed the atmosphere, their cries so loud I heard them over the snowmobile motors. Their groups cast long sinuous shadows on the ground. Some flew in agitated patterns that didn’t seem to have reason.

  Sky raced out ahead of us. I couldn’t stop my grin when she hit a snowbank, went flying into the air and screeched her joy. Then everything in me froze as her cry turned into a bloodcurdling scream as she suddenly made a sharp right and turned the snowmobile on its side. As she slid, she kept screaming and reaching for low-hanging branches as she passed them.

  I yelled when her snowmobile suddenly disappeared. She’d managed to grasp a branch, but her leg had been under the vehicle and she was dragged. As we sped closer, I saw that some kind of fault had cracked open in the ground.

  Sky screamed once more, then disappeared.

  I pulled the snowmobile to a stop, jumped off and ran to the edge but she was just...gone.

  “Sky!” Arun yelled as he slumped to the ground next to me. He leaned over the side. “Sky, please answer!”

  But the hole went deep—deeper than I could fathom because it was like looking down the side of a mountaintop cliff. One that had no bottom. There was nothing but a yawning pitch-black abyss below us. I shivered. “What the hell is this?” I whispered, horrified as I looked at Arun.

  The look on his face tore through me so hard and fast, I had to close my eyes. Yet,
all I could see then was the look of absolute terror on her face as she’d screamed and gone over the edge. As if that image had been tattooed on the backs of my eyelids.

  “I’ve hiked all over this park and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Arun leaned over more and I grabbed the back of his coat.

  Like I had the strength to stop him if he went over. “Please, stop leaning like that. We can’t lose you, too. Especially not after I came all this way to make sure that didn’t happen.”

  “She’s not lost. Sky!” But his voice echoed into the ravine. “Where did she go?”

  Hot tears pricked the backs of my eyes. I looked across the rift and my mouth dropped open. “Gods! Look at the other side.”

  “Are those handprints?” Brigg stood and walked around the crater. He knelt on the other side. “They are!” he yelled across the fault. “Footprints, too. Big-ass footprints.” He straightened, his red cheeks bright against the backdrop of snow. “Guess some giants came out here.”

  Giants. Giants who came from Niflheim. I stared down into the endless black depths of the hole and knew that Sky was gone forever. I sat back, everything in me tight.

  “Oh no, Sky.” Arun moved away from the hole, staggered a few steps and fell to his knees again.

  I hadn’t known her and the shock of her just going like that—without warning—had me frozen in place. For Arun, this had to be like being stabbed. I crawled across the snow to him and wrapped my arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”

  He hugged me back. “She’s only been here a few months, but I feel like I’ve known her forever. She was always so upbeat. So positive. She had plans after all this. Was going to be a marine biologist and have all these kids.” He looked back at the hole in the ground. “We should get some rope and try—”

  Brigg dropped to his knees next to Arun. “No, man. We can’t go down there because you know as well as I do that that hole goes a long, long way. It’s possible we can’t even cross over into the giants’ realm.”

  “Then Sky could be stuck.” Horror bleached out Arun’s skin. “She could be trapped.”